Diokno to appeal SC ruling granting bigger IRA to govs, mayors

Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Wednesday said the national government would appeal a recent Supreme Court (SC) decision on Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).

According to the July 4’s SC en banc ruling, the 40% IRA allotment of the local government units (LGUs) should be sourced from all national taxes and not only from Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) tax.

“As of now we have not received the decision. We asked the Solicitor General for appeal to reverse the decision,” Diokno said in an open forum during the 2nd pre-SONA 2018 Forum at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.

Voting 10-3, the SC interpreted the basis for the ‘just share’ of the LGUs as provided under 6, Article X of the 1987 Constitution “as being based on all national taxes and not only national internal revenue taxes, as provided in Section 284 of the Local Government Code.”

Batangas Governor Hermilando Mandanas, lead petitioner in the case, has called for urgent implementation of the SC ruling.

Under the 2018 General Appropriations, the LGUs will receive P522.7 billion IRA share while for 2019 they will get P575.5 billion or 15.3 percent of the proposed P3.757 trillion national budget approved in the recent Cabinet meeting. (PNA)

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